Mike Arrington: "Entrepreneurs Are All Screwed Up"

Yesterday, Mike Arrington wrote a post about entrepreneurs and the way they handle risk. Unlike other (normal) people who calculate risks and weight the pros and cons, entrepreneurs “don’t need to be rewarded for risk, because they actually get utility out of risk itself. In other words, they like adventure.”

Arrington likens the desire to start a company to the desire to become a 17th century pirate. In both cases, the chances of striking gold and becoming rich are slim to none, but hope is a strong reinforcer.

He explains, “A tiny minority of entrepreneurs ever get rich. And the majority of entrepreneurs would probably make far more money, and have more stable personal relationships, if they just worked for someone else.”

So why do entrepreneurs take the no pain, no gain approach? For the rush, of course.

“That thrill of your first hire, when you’ve convinced some other crazy soul to join you in your almost certainly doomed project. The high from raising venture capital and starting to see your name mentioned in the press. The excitement of launch and…gulp…customers! and the feeling of truly learning something useful, you’re just not sure what it is, when the company almost inevitably crashes and burns,” Arrington says.

“One thing I have been, and will always be, is an entrepreneur. And damnit, that feels pretty good.”